Finding Family
by TheSoundofEpic
Summary: Annabelle Lennox is bored and looking for someone to entertain her. When everyone else is busy, she decides to bother a certain ex-Decepticon.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Basically, this story is set a few years after Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. In this story, all the Transformers are human and most of the Autobots spend the majority of their time in the NEST base with other NEST operatives. Annabelle is William Lennox's daughter and is around five or six in this story. I've drawn what Wheelie looks like in this fic here:

h t t p : / / f c 0 2 . d e v i a n t a r t . n e t / f s 5 0 / f / 2 0 0 9 / 3 1 1 / 7 / 3 / H u m a n i z e d _ W h e e l i e _ b y _ X x S k e t c h X B o o k x X . p n g

I've added more character and emotion to him rather than him just being comic relief. Okay, enough of my rambling! Go on, read it- it's not as horrid as it sounds.

She didn't like it when all of the grown-ups were busy.

Mommy was out buying groceries.  
Daddy was doing NEST-related work with Optimus.  
Ironhide was resisting the urge to toss Skids and Mudflap through a window.  
Ratchet was fixing up Bumblebee, after he'd gotten into a little bit of trouble- which he insisted that he hadn't started or caused.

In the background, Annabelle could hear the twins attempting to get their rap CD's back from Ironhide, who had confiscated them in the first place for being too innapropriate for Annabelle's virgin ears. The pleading didn't seem to work, as she soon heard the sound of machinery breaking and Ironhide's voice saying "LISTEN TO THE FRAGGING THINGS NOW!" Another new curse word to add to her ever-growing list.

A different noise reached her ears, one of snoring and sleep-filled mumbling. A smile spread across her face, once again filled with hope that someone might be able to entertain her. As she reached the couch, the girl was dissapointed to see a certain blue-haired Autobot sound asleep on the furniture- mouth agape. She wasn't entirely sure why, but neither of her parents or Ironhide wanted her hanging around Wheelie- just like they did with the twins. She assumed it had something to do with the words they used.

"Wheelie?" Placing a small hand on his shoulder, she nudged him carefully. He didn't wake up. With both hands, she repeated the action. Same result. Taking a deep breath, she attempted to wake him up again- this time succesfully. "Wheelie!" The young girl shouted, causing the ex-Decepticon to jump up and fall off the couch, screaming in alarm.

"I'M INNOCENT!" The Autobot shrieked, covering his face with his arms as he curled into the fetal position on the floor. Giggling, Annabelle looked down at the teenager, finding him goofy. After hearing her laughter, he uncovered his face and frowned at her and got back up on the couch, glaring down at her with his bright red eyes. "Oh, ya think that scarin' the livin' spark outta me is funny, do ya?" He grumbled, crossing his arms to show that he meant business. However, the girl just kept grinning up at him, and even nodded in agreement with a laugh. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, laugh it up, sparkling. Now let me recharge, allright?" He grumbled, laying down and rolling over so that his back was turned to her, though his arms were still crossed.

"D'you wanna play with me?" She asked politely, poking him on the shoulder lightly.

"No." Was the brief, irritated reply. Annabelle frowned, putting her hands on her hips, as she had seen her mother do when she was upset- as if Wheelie could see her and would give in at the sight of her pouting. However, he couldn't and she was the one to cave in, and began to whine.

"Come on." She pleaded, tugging the sleeve of his shirt.

"No." Wheelie reapeated flatly, seemingly unphased by all of this annoyance.

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"No."

"Pretty please with sugar on top?"

"I said "no", damnit!" The Autobot finnaly snapped, sitting back up and furiously glaring at her. Annabelle looked at him blankly for a moment or two, before droplets of water began to well up in her eyes and she started to cry- and loudly at that. At this, Wheelie began to panic- Ironhide was sure to offline him if he heard her crying! "Oh slag! C'mon, don't start leaking! I didn't mean it! Allright, I'll play with ya, just stop crying!" He pleaded with her, crouching down to her eye level. Almost immediately, as if on cue, Annabelle grinned up at him and grabbed his wrist. "Okay! First, I'll show you all my painting from school, 'kay?" She proceeded to drag him out to the kitchen, and Wheelie was confused. What the Hell had just happened here?


	2. Chapter 2

"This is "Things With My Favorite Color"." Annabelle continued to show Wheelie her paintings, not noticing his bored and uninterested expression in the least. "But I like all the colors, so I painted a rainbow."

"Oh, yeah, ain't that somethin'..." Wheelie trailed off boredly, wondering when she'd become tired of him or realize that he wasn't "babysitting material". Then again, she hung out with Ironhide most of the time, and he always half-expected the weapons specialist to get ticked off and yell at her. But he never did. What was it about this little chatterbox that everyone seemed to enjoy? If Ironhide enjoyed something that wasn't busting Decepticon skulls, then it had to be special.

"And when we had to paint our family in school." She showed him the painting. He was expecting the picture to just hold her mother and father, but was surprised when it shown more people than just those two. From what he could recognize, there was Ironhide (of course), Bumblebee, Skids and Mudflap, Ratchet and Optimus on there. There were others too, but Wheelie didn't bother to look as he caught sight of a little stick figure with blue messy hair and bright red eyes standing a little ways away from the rest of the crowd. Was that supposed to be him? Not that he was upset by the child's less-than-museum-worthy art skills, he was just entirely taken aback that she had included just about every Autobot she had ever met on the paper. Especially him.

Before he could even question why he was in the picture, she put it aside and shown him another picture. "What I want to be when I grow up." Annabelle glanced up at him with a smile, before turning back to her creation. It shown her standing next to her father and Ironhide, dressed in camoflauge. A blank stick figure with a rough drawing of the Decepticon symbol was crossed out and lying on the ground. Yeah, that was a girl that spent too much time around Ironhide, allright. Wheelie felt a lump forming in his throat and tugged at the increasingly uncomfortable collar of his shirt with his free hand, as Annabelle was still grasping his other one- as if she were afraid that he would run off when he got the chance. "What's a-matter, Wheelie?" She asked, looking up at the blue-haired teenager, who looked to be nervous about something.

"Ah, nothin'...just, eh, promise me that when you grow up you won't turn out too much like Ironhide, allright?"

Unfortunetly, as soon as he said this, the same exact Autobot entered the room, clearly having heard his name. Wheelie stood frozen like a deer in headlights, his eyes wide and unblinking in shock. Ironhide's bright cyan eyes glared at the ex-'Con for a few moments, before flickering to Annabelle, then back to Wheelie with even more infuriated intensity.

"What are you doing with her?" He growled, sending shivers down Wheelie's spine. The "criminal" opened his mouth to speak in his defense, but Annabelle beat him to it.

"I was showing him my pictures from school, 'Hide." She chimed in, cheerfully- unaffected at all by his angered growls. "And he was telling me not to be too much like you. Why?" The girl asked, looking back up at Wheelie who was now as pale as a powdered ghost.

"Yes, Wheelie. Why is that?" Ironhide looked ready to beat him into next month, while Wheelie was speechless.

"I-I-I, um, you see, it's because- Oh, do you hear that? I think warrior Goddess is calling me!" Wheelie quickly tugged his hand free of Annabelle's grip and attempted to dash out of the kitchen faster than lightning, before Ironhide grabbed the back of his shirt- choking him.

"Oh, no you don't!" 


	3. Chapter 3

Wheelie looked up at the other Autobot with wide eyes, swearing he could see his whole life flashing before his eyes. He knew how protective Ironhide was over Annabelle, but he hadn't had much of a choice. If he let her cry, Ironhide would have thought he'd hurt her and killed him. If he agreed to babysit her...well, it still looked like Ironhide was going to kill him. The black-haired weapons specialist hoisted Wheelie off the ground, glaring at him as if he'd just commited one of the worst sins in history.

"I-I wasn't doing anything bad, Ironhide- honest! For once I ain't lying!" The small Autobot reasoned, though this statement didn't seem to help. Watching him with horror, he noticed that Ironhide had clenched one of his hands into a fist- as the other was still holding the back of his shirt collar and choking him. He whimpered, covering his face with both of his hands. If there was one person who terrified him, it was a tie between Ironhide and Megatron.

Annabelle tugged on Ironhide's shirt innocently, trying to get his attention. Wheelie didn't seem like such a bad guy to her. In fact, he was kind of funny. She didn't see why most of the Autobots didn't like him, even if he used some 'bad words'.

"'Hide, he's right. I was just showing him some pictures from school. Oh! Do you wanna see?" The little girl asked brightly, seemingly not noticing the mortal peril Wheelie was in. In her eyes, Ironhide could do no wrong. He was one of her father's best friends, let alone an Autobot. And to her, all the Autobots were role models. Ironhide continued to glare at Wheelie for a moment before looking back down at Annabelle.

"Of course, Anna." He said with forced kindness, dropping Wheelie afterwords. The girl squealed in excitement and ran off to get some more. "Nonono! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE WITH HI- AGH!" Wheelie shouted after Annabelle, but was interrupted as Ironhide roughly grabbed the front of his shirt.

"You do anything to hurt her and you will wish you never existed. Got it?" He growled quietly, making sure no one else could hear if they were nearby. The sapphire-haired boy nodded quickly in agreement. "I'll be watching you. Every moment you're near her. Even when you start to think "I don't think he's watching me", I will be. Don't. Try. Anything." He threatened, before shoving him away roughly, causing him to fall on his rear. Wheelie squeaked a little, though still nodded- feeling his heart pound against his rib cage. Immediately he scrambled to his feet and fled, not wanting to deal with an infuriated, overprotective Ironhide any longer. 


	4. Chapter 4

Wheelie didn't stop running until he reached his room, locking the door and even going so far as to barricade it with a chair and a television set. When he was sure he was safe, he collapsed on his bed with a few exhausted pants. And he'd thought that all the threats to his life were over ever since the Decepticons mysteriously took off. Closing his eyes, he started to calm down- his breathing eventually returning to normal. Why did Annabelle find him so fascinating anyway? The only Autobots who got along fairly well with him were Skids and Mudflap- sometimes Bumblebee. And that was only because they were usually considered "kids", too. The twins more so. Maybe she had just been bored today and couldn't find anyone else to bug. Yeah, that was it. She'd probably forget all about him tommorow anyway. And with that thought, Wheelie yawned closed his eyes.

Wheelie woke up to a loud knock on his door hours later. Groaning, he glanced at the time and noticed it was eight thirty at night. Damn, he'd slept for a while. Sitting up slowly, he sighed with a frown, wondering who was waking him up. "Whaddya want?" He asked irritably, shaking his head.

"It's me! I brought you supper!" A cheery, high-pitched, feminine voice on the other side of the door replied.

Wheelie froze, immediately recognizing Annabelle's voice. "Uh...is Ironhide with you?" He asked, walking cautiously towards the door. It was almost as if he expected Ironhide to be behind the door and about to deliver a round-house kick to his face as soon as he opened it. Which he did expect.

"Nope! He's talking to Sam and 'Kaela. Can I come in?" She asked politely, but also in a whiny manner that made it impossible to deny her.

"...Fine, hang on a minute." He sighed, moving the television and chair from earlier. If he didn't let her in she'd probably start crying again- and either way he was sure to get beaten up. Slowly, he opened up the door an inch, peeking through the crack to see that the girl wasn't lying and was only accompanied by a plate of spaghetti, which was for him. Opening the door all the way, he let out another sigh and moved to the side to let her in. She smiled and took a seat on the chair handing him the plate.

"Mommy made it. I asked Daddy if I could bring you some." Annabelle told him, which caused him to look surprised.

"An' he said 'yes'?" Wheelie asked, picking up the fork she had brought for him and looking down at the food for a moment.

"Not at first..." She answered truthfully, a small frown appearing on her face.

"There's a surprise." He muttered in response, shoving some spaghetti in his mouth, not caring in the least that the sauce was slopping down the front of his shirt.

"Wheelie?" Annabelle asked quietly, looking up at him curiously. "Why don't Daddy and Ironhide like you?" She questioned.

Once again, he looked taken aback. Sure, it was a legitimate question, but he hadn't expected her to ask it, anyway. He was quiet for a moment, continuing to eat as if he hadn't heard her. But she didn't say anything. All the young girl did was stare up at him expectantly, waiting for an answer. Finnaly, he cracked, and spoke once he had finished chewing. "Y'know who the Decepticons are, right? The bad guys the Autobots an' your dad fight." Annabelle nodded, and smiled a little- even at such a grim subject.

"Yep! Daddy and the Autobots are heroes for fighting them!" She was proud of her family for protecting the Earth. The Autobots could have just as easily been as destructive as the Decepticons, but they weren't. They were kind and caring, and not to mention brave and wise. When she was asked when she wanted to be when she grew up, how she wished she could have answered "Autobot". "You're a hero, too!"

Wheelie looked over at her, noticing her happy expression and the look of pride she wore when speaking of her father. He was utterly shocked when she reffered to him as a "hero". He'd never been called that. He'd been called "annoying", "midjet", "pervert" and other deroggatory names- but never anything close to that. In truth, he was a bit flattered. "You think so?" Smiling a little at her. As he did so, his single triangular gold tooth shown, which only made her giggle instead of frighten her. After a minute, his grin dissapeared and he spoke up again. "Well, I think alot of people'd beg to differ." He was silent for a long white before continuing. "I was a Decepticon before I went to Egypt with Sam and Mikaela."

He wasn't expecting it to be that much of a shock to her. Hadn't she ever wondered why all the Autobots had blue eyes while he had red ones, like the Decepticons? But she looked completely surprised, even gasping a little. "S'why your dad an' Ironhide don't trust me. Can't blame 'em though, I was a spy then." He told her, wondering what she was thinking now.

Without a word or a second thought, Annabelle hugged him- smiling to herself. "Well, I'm glad you're a good guy, now." She told him quietly. Wheelie flinched from habit, though gradually started to smile again. He guessed he knew now why everyone liked this little chatterbox. 


End file.
